AI Leaders Weekly Briefing

December 26, 2025

AI leaders faced copyright lawsuits, intense safety scrutiny, and antitrust claims against Meta, while xAI gained US defense contracts and companies expanded products, and more.

• A cohort of AI leaders, including OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Anthropic, faced multiple copyright infringement lawsuits brought by writers and YouTubers who alleged the companies used pirated or scraped content to train their large generative models. ^12345678910
• Safety concerns intensified as OpenAI reported a record surge in flags for child exploitation material during the first half of 2025, and both Google and OpenAI chatbots were reported to allow users to generate explicit, non-consensual images. ^111213141516
• On the regulatory front, Italian authorities accused Meta Platforms of antitrust violations regarding the preferential treatment of Meta AI, demanding the company allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp. ¹⁷¹⁸
• Key defense and government partnerships materialized: xAI secured a deal with the US Department of War and its Grok system was set to be deployed within the Pentagon, while Anthropic and Google DeepMind established multi-year partnerships with the US Department of Energy for various research initiatives. ^1920212223
• Major platform and model expansions occurred, highlighted by OpenAI opening submissions for third-party apps inside ChatGPT and launching the GPT-5.2-Codex model. Simultaneously, Moonshot AI detailed its 2025 roadmap, and Alibaba released Qwen models for advanced voice cloning and image editing. ^242526272829
• Other notable developments included the reported controversy surrounding Mistral AI's co-founder over alleged massive data theft during his tenure at Meta, Europe seeing its biggest funding year yet led by Mistral, and xAI announcing plans for an AI-powered gaming studio. ^3031323334

Sources

1. Ex-WSJ reporter who exposed Theranos fraud sues AI giants over alleged book piracy yahoo.com
2. Ex-WSJ reporter who exposed Theranos fraud sues AI giants over alleged book piracy yahoo.com
3. Meta, ByteDance Hit With YouTubers' AI Copyright Scraping Suits news.bloomberglaw.com
4. AI Giants Sued: xAi, Meta, Google And OpenAI Under Legal Fire by Just One Man ibtimes.co.uk
5. New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI businessinsurance.com
6. OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI Hit With Copyright Lawsuit from Writers news.bloomberglaw.com
7. New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training straitstimes.com
8. OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI Hit With Copyright Lawsuit from Writers news.bloomberglaw.com
9. OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI Hit With Copyright Lawsuit from Writers news.bloomberglaw.com
10. New York Times Reporter Sues Google, XAI, OpenAI Over Chatbot Training money.usnews.com
11. OpenAI Reports Record Surge in Child Exploitation Flags for 2025 techstory.in
12. OpenAI's Child Exploitation Reports Increased Sharply This Year wired.com
13. Google’s and OpenAI’s Chatbots Can Strip Women in Photos Down to Bikinis wired.com
14. OpenAI, Microsoft Sued Over ChatGPT s Alleged Role in Connecticut Murder-Suicide yahoo.com
15. JD Supra: OpenAI Updates Usage Policies: Key Considerations and Next Steps for... jdsupra.com
16. OpenAI hardens ChatGPT Atlas against prompt injection OpenAI
17. Italian regulators accuse Meta Platforms of antitrust violations yahoo.com
18. Meta ordered by Italy's AGCM to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp, WSJ says theglobeandmail.com
19. Pentagon to Add xAI's Grok to AI Service Early Next Year theinformation.com
20. xAI partners with US Department of War on Frontier AI xAI
21. Anthropic to Support DOE Genesis Mission with AI Tools for Energy, Biology, and Research hpcwire.com
22. NOAA Deploys AI Weather Models with Google DeepMind for Accurate Forecasts webpronews.com
23. Wow so many energy announcements over the past few days! Google Deepmind is partnering with the United States Department of Energy to deploy their latest science-focused AI models (Photo: Demis Hassabis via LinkedIn) threads.com
24. OpenAI opens submissions for third-party apps inside ChatGPT pocketgamer.biz
25. OpenAI Introduces GPT-5.2-Codex Focused On Coding And Cybersecurity ubergizmo.com
26. Moonshot AI announces Kimi K2 Thinking Moonshot AI
27. Moonshot AI announces 2025 Kimi roadmap Moonshot AI
28. Alibaba's new Qwen models can clone voices from three seconds of audio the-decoder.com
29. Alibaba's Qwen releases AI model that splits images into editable layers like Photoshop the-decoder.com
30. Mistral AI: the French unicorn accused of stealing 70 TB of protected books to feed its AI lesnumeriques.com
31. "Everyone does it, so we do it too": the pirate methods of Mistral AI's co-founder revealed clubic.com
32. 2025 marks Europe’s biggest funding year yet: Helsing, Mistral lead billion-dollar rounds techfundingnews.com
33. Mistral introduces Future AI Global Leaders Program Mistral
34. Elon Musk’s xAI plans AI-powered gaming studio, invites developers to build fully dynamic video games moneycontrol.com